site banner

Culture War Roundup for the week of December 9, 2024

This weekly roundup thread is intended for all culture war posts. 'Culture war' is vaguely defined, but it basically means controversial issues that fall along set tribal lines. Arguments over culture war issues generate a lot of heat and little light, and few deeply entrenched people ever change their minds. This thread is for voicing opinions and analyzing the state of the discussion while trying to optimize for light over heat.

Optimistically, we think that engaging with people you disagree with is worth your time, and so is being nice! Pessimistically, there are many dynamics that can lead discussions on Culture War topics to become unproductive. There's a human tendency to divide along tribal lines, praising your ingroup and vilifying your outgroup - and if you think you find it easy to criticize your ingroup, then it may be that your outgroup is not who you think it is. Extremists with opposing positions can feed off each other, highlighting each other's worst points to justify their own angry rhetoric, which becomes in turn a new example of bad behavior for the other side to highlight.

We would like to avoid these negative dynamics. Accordingly, we ask that you do not use this thread for waging the Culture War. Examples of waging the Culture War:

  • Shaming.

  • Attempting to 'build consensus' or enforce ideological conformity.

  • Making sweeping generalizations to vilify a group you dislike.

  • Recruiting for a cause.

  • Posting links that could be summarized as 'Boo outgroup!' Basically, if your content is 'Can you believe what Those People did this week?' then you should either refrain from posting, or do some very patient work to contextualize and/or steel-man the relevant viewpoint.

In general, you should argue to understand, not to win. This thread is not territory to be claimed by one group or another; indeed, the aim is to have many different viewpoints represented here. Thus, we also ask that you follow some guidelines:

  • Speak plainly. Avoid sarcasm and mockery. When disagreeing with someone, state your objections explicitly.

  • Be as precise and charitable as you can. Don't paraphrase unflatteringly.

  • Don't imply that someone said something they did not say, even if you think it follows from what they said.

  • Write like everyone is reading and you want them to be included in the discussion.

On an ad hoc basis, the mods will try to compile a list of the best posts/comments from the previous week, posted in Quality Contribution threads and archived at /r/TheThread. You may nominate a comment for this list by clicking on 'report' at the bottom of the post and typing 'Actually a quality contribution' as the report reason.

6
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

I am a pretty moral person. I have a strong moral code. I am generally nice to others. I try to help people. I think that things like murder and rape are fundamentally wrong in an absolute way. And I have absolutely no problem with someone having sex with 100 strangers in an hour. The idea that there would be a moral issue about it strikes me as somewhat absurd.

As for drugs, I would prefer that people not get addicted to them, but there is no moral dimension about it for me.

I am a pretty moral person. I have a strong moral code. I am generally nice to others. I try to help people. I think that things like murder and rape are fundamentally wrong in an absolute way.

A self-referential argument from authority is a hell of way to make a point.

As for drugs, I would prefer that people not get addicted to them, but there is no moral dimension about it for me.

What, then, does have a "moral dimension" for you? Are you saying that many things in life are not only inherently ammoral, but immune to morality?

Well, I already said that I think murder and rape are fundamentally wrong in an absolutely way, so certainly those have a moral dimension for me. But promiscuity doesn't.

Also, I'm not trying to argue from authority, I'm just pointing out that I'm not a moral relativist or a nihilist, and I may or may not be a hedonist depending on how you define hedonism, yet I don't see any moral issue with promiscuity.

I'm not trying to speak for 100Proof by replying, just my opinion here.

  1. Moral systems exist in part to guide people to optimal choices as people are often poor judges of what makes themselves and others happiest.
  2. It is possible to morally wrong yourself (as the primary victim). This is wrong like it would be a moral wrong to allow yourself to weigh 600 pounds.

Allowing oneself to weigh 600 pounds undoubtedly hurts one. Having sex with 100 people in a day does not undoubtedly hurt one.

That's debatable. But your comment makes me wonder if there were any sort of screening of these men for STIs, beyond simply "Hey do you have any?" I somehow doubt it.

Why doubt that? Requiring a ticket to ride is pretty standard procedure.

For whom? I feel like a girl advertising for sex wanting only a photo of your face and you holding up an email address (or whatever it was) is not particularly cautious. I could be wrong, of course.

Aella's gangbang for instance required std screening. It's just kind of one of the first things you'd think of when considering logistics for this sort of thing.

Aella's gangbang

I am disappointed that I actually do remember this occurred at some point.